He then held the local government portfolio (1990), arguing in favour of the ultimately highly unpopular Community Charge system (popularly known as Poll Tax). He demonstrated a consistently right-of-centre line (exemplified by his insistence, in a well-publicised speech, of placing 'clear blue water' between the policies of the Conservatives and other parties) and was favoured by Norman Tebbit and Margaret Thatcher. His rise continued under John Major; he was made a Cabinet Minister as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1992), and admitted to the Privy Council the same year. Portillo subsequently held the portfolios of Employment (1994) and then Defence (1995–1997).

His high profile led to constant attention from the media, including Private Eye, which mockingly referred to him as "Portaloo". He was accused of vanity when the Alexandra Palace was hired to celebrate his ten years in politics.[10]

In government

Some saw the Defence Secretary post as a reward for his cautious loyalty to Major during the 1995 leadership challenge of John Redwood, following Major's "back me or sack me" resignation as party leader. Many urged Portillo, the "darling of the right"[11] to run against Major. He declined to enter the first round but planned to challenge Major if the contest went to a second round.[11] To this end, he set up a potential campaign headquarters with banks of telephone lines. He later admitted that this was an error; "I did not want to oppose [Major], but neither did I want to close the possibility of entering a second ballot if it came to that." Portillo acknowledged that "ambiguity is unattractive"[12] and his opponents within the party later used Portillo's apparent equivocation as an example of his indecisiveness;[11] "I appeared happy to wound but afraid to strike: a dishonourable position."[11]

As Defence Secretary, Portillo invited criticism by invoking the motto of the SAS, "Who Dares, Wins", at a speech at the Conservative Party annual conference.[13]

1997 election defeat

Portillo's loss of the Enfield Southgate seat in the 1997 general election to Labour's Stephen Twigg came as a shock to many politicians and commentators, and came to symbolise the extent of the Labour landslide victory.[14] Halfway through the campaign, Portillo invited aides Andrew Cooper and Michael Simmonds to his house and presented them with some ideas for a leadership campaign following the Conservative defeat and asked them to finish it off.[11] However, a poll in The Observer on the weekend before the election showed that Portillo held only a three-point lead in his hitherto safe seat.[14] Portillo asked Cooper, who oversaw the party's internal polling, to reassure him that it was wrong. Cooper was unable to and Portillo began to accept that he might lose.[15]

He had a memorable interview with Jeremy Paxman on election night prior to the calling of his own seat. Paxman decisively opened the interview with the question "so Michael, are you going to miss the limo?" – a clear reference to the strong feeling going around on election night that he had lost his seat. Portillo was then stumped with the follow up question of "are we seeing the end of the Conservative Party as a credible force in British politics?". He has since admitted that he knew he had lost his seat by the time of the interview:[14]

I saw that the exit poll was predicting a 160 seat majority for Labour. I thought, "when is Paxman going to ask me have I lost my seat?", because I deduced from that that I had. I then drove the car to my constituency and I knew I'd lost. But I also saw David Mellor. David Mellor had this really bad tempered spat with Jimmy Goldsmith [after the Putney election results had been announced]. I saw this and I thought if there's one thing I do when I lose, I'm going to lose with as much dignity as I can muster and not be like this David Mellor—Goldsmith thing.[16]

Portillo's defeat represented a 17.4% swing to Labour. Although Twigg retained the seat with an increased majority in 2001, it returned to the Conservative Party in 2005 with a swing of 8.7%.[17]

'Portillo moment'

The 1997 loss, symbolising the loss of the election by the Conservative Party, has been referred to as "the Portillo moment", and in the cliché "Were you up for Portillo?" (i.e., "Were you awake/did you see Portillo's result announced on television?")[14] Portillo himself commented, thirteen years later, that as a consequence "My name is now synonymous with eating a bucketload of shit in public."[18]

Return to Parliament

After the election, Portillo renewed his attachment to Kerr-McGee but also undertook substantial media work including programmes for the BBC and Channel 4. He also seemed to be moving in his expressed opinions more towards the centre-right.[citation needed]

In an interview with The Times given in the summer of 1999, Portillo admitted that "I had some homosexual experiences as a young person."[19] A few weeks after he had given this interview, the death of Alan Clark gave Portillo the opportunity to return to Parliament, despite Lord Tebbit accusing Portillo of lying about the extent of his sexual "deviance",[20] and similar comments from an associate included in a profile of Portillo in The Guardian newspaper.[21] He comfortably won the by-election in late November 1999 to represent Kensington and Chelsea, traditionally one of the safest Conservative seats.

2001 leadership election

Following the 2001 general election Portillo contested the leadership of the party. In the first ballot of Conservative MPs, he led well. However, there followed press stories including veiled (and not-so-veiled) references to his previous homosexual experiences and to his equivocation at the time of Major's 1995 resignation. He was knocked out in the final round of voting by Conservative MPs, leaving party members to choose between Iain Duncan Smith and Kenneth Clarke, the gay aspects of his past – according to Clarke – having damaged his chances.[23]

Retirement

When Duncan Smith was elected leader, Portillo returned to the backbenches. In March 2003 he voted in favour of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In November 2003, having turned down an offer of a Shadow Cabinet post from the incoming Conservative leader Michael Howard,[24] Portillo announced that he would not seek re-election, and he left the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. His membership of the Conservative Party has since lapsed.[25]

Media career

1998 saw Portillo make his first foray into broadcasting on Channel 4 with Portillo's Progress — three 60-minute-long programmes looking into the changed social and political scene in Britain.[28] From 2002 onwards, Portillo developed an active career in media, both as a commentator on public affairs and as a writer and/or presenter of television and radio documentaries.

Portillo has featured in a number of television documentaries, including one about Richard Wagner, of whose music he is a fan, and two on Spain (he is fluent in Spanish and holds Spanish as well as British citizenship): Great Railway Journeys: From Granada to Salamanca for BBC Two (2002), and a programme on Spanish wildlife for BBC Two's The Natural World series (2006). He took over, for one week, the life, family and income of a single mother living on benefits in Wallasey.[30][31]

In 2007, he participated in the BBC television project The Verdict, serving, with other well known figures, as a jury member hearing a fictional rape case. He was elected as the jury's foreman.

The documentary How To Kill a Human Being in the Horizon series featured Portillo carrying out a survey of capital punishment methods (including undertaking some near death experiences himself) in an attempt to find an 'acceptable' form of capital punishment. It was broadcast on BBC Two on 15 January 2008.[32]

In 2008, Portillo made a documentary as part of the BBC Headroom campaign, which explored mental health issues. Portillo's documentary Michael Portillo: Death of a School Friend explores how the suicide of Portillo's classmate Gary Findon affected Findon's parents, brother, music teachers, school teachers, classmates, and Portillo himself. The programme was originally broadcast on 7 November 2008.[34]

He made a second Horizon documentary, titled How Violent Are You?, broadcast on 12 May 2009.[35]

In 2009, Portillo appeared in the second episode of the second series of The Supersizers eat... to discuss medievalcuisine and the Magna Carta. Filmed in 2009 but originally broadcast on 4 January 2010, Portillo presented Great British Railway Journeys, in which he explored, with the aid of George Bradshaw's 1863 tourist handbook, how the railways had a profound influence on the social, economic and political history of Britain. A second series was broadcast on BBC Two in 2011, and to date there has been a total of six series, with a seventh due to be shown in 2016. Portillo also presented a similar television series called Great Continental Railway Journeys, following Portillo around continental Europe, using his George Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide. A second series was broadcast in 2013, and to date there has been a total of four series.

In September 2011, he presented a two-part series on BBC Radio 4 called Capitalism on Trial.[36] He has also presented a history series on BBC Radio 4 called The Things We Forgot to Remember.[37]

In 2014, as part of the BBC's World War I commemorations, Portillo presented Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo over five nights in August 2014.[38]

A ten-part BBC Two series, Portillo's State Secrets, in which Portillo examines classified documents from the British National Archives, commenced on 23 March 2015.[39]

Portillo has written a regular column for The Sunday Times, contributes to other journals (he was a theatre critic for the New Statesman until May 2006),[41] and is a regular radio broadcaster in the UK. In June 2013, he presented a 15-minute programme (following The World at One) on BBC Radio 4 called 1913 – the Year Before about the state of Britain in the years preceding World War I, challenging the view that these years were optimistic and cheerful.[42]

Portillo is the British chairman of the Anglo-Spanish organisation Tertulias, which organises annual meetings between the two countries.[27] He is also a Honorary Vice-President of Canning House, the Hispanic and Luso Brazilian Council.[45]

Portillo has a strong interest in contemporary visual arts and is Chairman of the Federation of British Artists (FBA) the educational arts charity housed at Mall Galleries, London.

↑ 29.029.1This detail, correcting an error, was added by Clive Anderson on 2 July 2007, as an example of the workings of this site, during the making of Factual: The Wikipedia Story (BBC Radio 4), first broadcast on 24 July 2007. Anderson was at school with Abbott and Portillo; the issue of 'original research' was not raised in the programme itself.